I got my Standard Def Roku Box for Christmas. It was easy to hook up and easy to set up. The box walks you through initialization and wifi set-up. It walks you through linking your Roku to your online accounts. It’s super easy to browse and find stuff to watch. The remote is simple, it’s low powered and the box is practically invisible when not in use. There’s a great variety of media, including Netflix, Amazon and Pandora. My dad could use this box, without killing it. I would considered all these the pros of the Roku box.

The cons as far as I can tell, are that you do need to set up accounts for everything online at the beginning, rather than through the box. This involves going to sites for Roku and any other service you want, to get a confirmation number to input. Your Netflix queue has to be updated via internet, though it shows up on the Roku queue in a couple of minutes. These are minor inconveniences though, compared to the value of a tiny box.

I look forward to seeing what else Roku can squeeze onto my box and am always hopeful for a browser. I also hope one day to be able to upgrade to the high definition box.

Sheala, GA

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I left my woes for AT&T and the closed iPhone app store back in October for the HTC Hero and Sprint. It was great. I could make calls more regularly and was loving android though this did not last very long. Google had released many updates including 2.1 and I will still stuck on 1.5 with information on updates coming in only rumors or vague updates from Sprint. I even began to look up the date my contract will end losing faith in Android. Then I realized my phone had gotten damp enough at one time to set off the warranty sticker under the back cover, so i decided it was time to destroy the warranty all the way. Before I knew it the phone was rooted and I had installed a custom ROM of 2.1 someone had hacked together. The process was incredibly simple and I have not had any problems since. I would suggest it for anyone who is growing ever more impatient waiting for updates for their android phone.

Tim
New Orleans, LA

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Dear Real-Dealers,

I asked recently for advice on using a second laptop as a second screen while editing video in the field.

I did the Google – which I should have done before summoning the awesome power that is Real Deal – and found ScreenRecycler which seems to fill the bill.

I run Final Cut Express on my personal Mac laptop and put the Canvas window on the screen of the company’s G4 powerbook. The connection is made with an ethernet cable using a VNC client supplied with ScreenRecycler. Not only that but the G4 is still available to FTP files to the office via a wireless card while I work.

It’s plenty fast enough for my use, is free-to-try and cost only $30.

Thanks,

Michael in Akron

“There are worse places to live”

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QUESTIONS

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1

Hello Tom and Rafe,

Thank you for the great show. I need to “consult” you regarding what monitor I should buy. I have 15″ Macbook Pro (unibody) and I usually work back and forth between documents. Putting them side by side or in different “spaces” is inconvenient. I thought about buying additional display to solve the problem. Apple display is too expensive and I think working between two different size monitors will be “disturbing”. What monitor you recommend for that purpose? (Brand/size/resolution/connections)

Thanks in advance.

Have a great day!

Obada.

Rafe: First, Apple external monitors are unbelievably overpriced for what they do… but they sure do look good doing it. So, yeah, get another brand. Now,

In my experience, and I do this a lot, switching between differenlt-size monitors on one setup is no problem at all. What can be jarring is if the size of elements changes as you go from one to the other. What you want to match is the pixels per inch, or dot pitch, on your Mac w/ the external monitors. Your Macbook displays 110 pixels per inch. Find a monitor that’s close to that and you’ll be golden. Here’s a wikipedia page with standard PPI numbers for popular size/resolution pairings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_displays_by_pixel_density#Standard-aspect_Display